The Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) is dedicated to promoting the common interests of the nation's leading academic and free-standing cancer centers that are focused on the eradication of cancer through a comprehensive and multidisciplinary program of cancer research, treatment, patient care, prevention, education, and community outreach. The annual meeting convenes leaders of AACI cancer centers - center directors and executive-level administrators -with leaders of national cancer research and advocacy organizations, industry, and government health agencies to share best practices and devise solutions to shared challenges. The NCI-designated cancer centers, represented by AACI, comprise the major platform for advancing NCI's agenda. This meeting offers a unique opportunity for NCI to leverage its substantial investment in the nation's cancer centers and is the only venue available for central scientific and operational issues to be openly discussed by the key leadership of the nation's preeminent member cancer centers. The program's educational objectives are to provide support and education for the member centers responsible for conducting the research, training, and care of cancer patients and their families within the national network of cancer centers. Through collaboration with all key stakeholders the AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting strives to keep the nation's leading cancer centers moving forward, making discoveries, and delivering an unsurpassed model of cancer care. From bench to bedside, this unique audience of cancer center leaders will use the tools and information that they receive at the meeting to implement best practice solutions to shared challenges at their respective cancer institutions. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting is a content-driven conference providing physicians, scientists, and other senior leaders at cancer centers the opportunity to examine issues that will optimize the translation of bench side discoveries to clinical application. The conference also allows for the exchange and discussion of new scientific knowledge that will contribute to the development of novel therapeutic approaches for patients and populations at risk.